The invention disclosed herein relates to a novel method of merchandising a mouse pad in publications for the purpose of advertising of products wherein the mouse pad causes the publications to automatically open at the pad and enhance the advertising to the reader.
Advertising in publications, such as magazines, has been varied in conception and practice. Magazine advertising consists of advertising pieces that are either included in the bound pages or inserted in a fairly scattered manner. Advertising inserts can be bound into a magazine whether the magazine has a saddle-stitched or stapled binding or a perfect-bound or glued binding; the advertising piece being either a single sheet carrier card that is glued onto a page in the publication or a folded carrier card integrated into the folded pages so that a portion of the advertising piece extends into one or more locations depending on the position of the folded page. Likewise, if a bindery hanger is utilized as the carrier for the advertising piece, the hanger may also be bound into the publication by either the saddle-stitched or perfect-binding method. The bindery hanger may either have a counterbalance provided with a glue stub for a separate advertising piece or have a counterbalance and a carrier card folded for insertion in the publication. Clearly, if an advertising piece is of a slightly thicker nature due to the weight or thickness of the paper or other material, the publication will have the tendency to fall open at the thicker page thus calling the reader""s attention to the advertising.
With the advent of the computer mouse which contacts and moves on a mouse pad as a friction surface, the mouse runs on a roller which engages the upper surface of the pad, and the pad has a non-slip lower surface which engages the desk top or other surface supporting the mouse, mouse pad and computer keyboard. The computer mouse typically is a hand-held device operating on the mouse pad which, in cooperation with the computer hardware and software, permits a computer operator to control the path and movement of a cursor or pointer located on the computer display monitor; the mouse having activation buttons so that the appropriate computer programs can be accessed and activated for operations of the computer. The use of a mouse greatly increases the speed and ease of inputting commands to the computer and facilitates much faster data entry than that provided by keyboard usage.
The conventional mouse pad construction presently utilized consists of a flat smooth pad surface which is contacted by the computer mouse and a backing of non-slip material which is formed of a foam rubber or other appropriate material having a substantial thickness. In the recently issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,311 of Carl Scianna and entitled xe2x80x9cImproved Non-Slip Mat or Padxe2x80x9d, a substantially thinner mouse pad is disclosed formed of a thin plastic sheet with a tacky backing that adds substantially no appreciable thickness to the pad. The improved thinner mouse pad can have advertising material printed on it by adding the advertising images onto the lower surface of a pad formed of a transparent plastic material with the images being visible through the pad thickness. The novel thinner mouse pad opens up new vistas for the usage of the pad in a variety of new ways.
The present invention relates to a novel and improved method of adding advertising to magazines and other edge bound periodicals or publications by the insertion into the publication a substantially thinner mouse pad formed of a mostly transparent plastic material with advertising showing through the pad by utilization of presently known methods of binding the magazine; i.e., saddle-stitching or perfect binding. The mouse pad may thus be placed into mass distribution for the publication, such as over-the-counter sales or by subscription, either paid or free, distributed through the mail or other means and, due to the added thickness of the mouse pad over that of an ordinary page, will allow the reader to easily flip open the publication to the mouse pad advertising. Further, once the reader sees the mouse pad and wishes to use it, the pad is easily removable from the magazine and positioned by the computer keyboard and under the mouse.
The present invention also comprehends the application of a thin mouse pad to the publication during the binding process by being releasably joined or glued to a carrier card or bindery hanger within the publication with a plurality of releasable glue spots, narrow strips of releasable glue or a network of the releasable glue applied over the carrier card or the glue stub of a bindery hanger to retain the pad in the publication until removed by the reader. A special carrier card in the publication carries the mouse pad wherein the magazine is bound by a saddle-stitch or perfect-bound binding. In the same manner, an edge of the pad may be glued to the glue stub of a counterbalance for a bindery hanger that is bound into either type of bound publication.
Also contemplated by the present invention is the provision of a substantially thinner mouse pad inserted into and releasably mounted in an unbound publication such as a newspaper, either tabloid or full size wherein the mouse pad has one or more narrow strips of releasable glue applied thereto and the pad is attached onto the surface of a sheet of the publication. Other objects and advantages of the present method will be obvious upon consideration of the specification and claims of the present application.